


Round Two

by UlbertSnow



Category: Super Danganronpa Another 2 - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Hajime protagonist, Multi, Murder cases, Ocassional drama and fluff, Ocassional sad stuff as well, References to Kanabiki, SDRA2 in DRA AU, Terukei, deviations from canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-14 02:16:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18043562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UlbertSnow/pseuds/UlbertSnow
Summary: Hajime Makunouchi found himself locked up in the school of his dreams: Hope’s Peak Academy. But he would soon learn that every dream needs a sacrifice to be achieved......and the price is murder.





	1. Prologue-Part 1

Everything started with a knock-out. Or rather, it was that same knock-out that started the end of the beginning for our peaceful practice called “life”. Hajime woke up in what seemed to be a enclosed, lights-off room. Were it not for the fact that there were no benches, the place would have looked something like a very old place where people used to train before a match. He shook his head from side to side and rustled his hair in confusion. The last thing Hajime could remember thinking about was that enrolling as an Ultimate in Hope’s Peak Academy could finally give him the chance he needed to set things right. Suddenly, all it took for him was a distant voice coming from the door to get him to come back to his senses and onto his feet. Carefully, Hajime walked to the entrance of the room and tried to see who was waiting for him outside of it. “It must be the the one who put me here” Hajime thought.

“Yo, who’s there?” Hajime said, as calm and collected as he could

“...............” the mysterious person only spoke with silence Surprisingly, the person seemed reluctant to tak at the moment, only staring at the confused boxer as he kept thinking what to say to them. But why wouldn’t he, because after seeing such an oddly-clothed figure, anything else he could’ve thought was thrown out the window. They seemed oddly familar, for some reason.

After what seemed like an intense stare-down, the figure mumbled something to itself, approached the boxer, and put something for him to grasp in his hand: a small note that stated **“Mikado Sannoji, Ultimate Magician”.** The expression on his white mask changed to show a slight grin, which briefly startled Hajime until he was struck with a wave of realization.

“H-hey! I’ve heard of you before!” Said Hajime “Weren’t you the guy who performed mind-blowing mind tricks for kids or something? That’s totally cool man!” It was actually the familiar scent of flames coming from his gloves that gave it away.

Instead of replying, Mikado simply started striding along the hallway, looking back at him and giving a gesture with his left hand to follow their footsteps. And so, Hajime did as he instructed, keeping himself ready for anyone else he might see on the way. After walking along the rest of the passage, they finally came upon the place the magician had supposedly come from to get him.

What greeted him was the sight of a group of students, all talking to each other in pairs or trios, their presence covering the rest of the room with white noise and chatter. Luckily for Hajime, he was used to concentrating when having to deal with a ton of outside input, so he was easily able to concentrate on what he wanted to listen to calmly.

“-and that’s final. Do I have to repeat myself like usual, Nikei?” Said one of the girls standing next to the boy, who was wearing a journalist’s outfit and almost seemed silly to look at, but oddly endearing for some reason.

“Not at all, Mitsume” Said Nikei “The only thing I’m saying is that staying here won’t help our situation, and I’m sure you know that better than anyone, being a psychologist and all”

“This is why I’ve said that arguing with you is pointless” said Mitsume, cleaning her glasses “Because the only thing you’ve done is repeat what I’ve just said. Which is what I just said earlier, too” “S-sorry! Well then, let’s start our prepara- uh? Who’s that guy?

” Said Nikkei, suddenly looking confused at Hajime, who he didn’t recognize as being part of the group. In a matter of seconds, a few of the other people laid their curious eyes on him. The boy stepped back for a moment “W-wait, are you-“ but he suddenly kept quiet and wrote something in his notepad.

And that’s when it dawned on Hajime: one way or another, the group standing before him was composed entirely of students from Hope’s Peak Academy, all of which practically were supposed to meet each other. Of course, Hajime didn’t have time to remember that because he just woke up, after all.

“Yo Nikkei, I’m Hajime Makunouchi! Don’t you guys know who the hell I am?” Hajime said “What took you so long Jim? Are the health pills you take used for sleep?” In a sarcastic but friendly tone, the Ultimate Billiards Player Setsuka spoke out to Hajime

“W-wait, you guys remember me too?” Makunouchi said in an almost relieved tone, putting his arm behind his head. “Of course we do, stupid! Everyone in here is supposed to be attending Hope’s Peak Academy” Kabuya said in an almost angry tone, only held back by the silver haired girl standing beside her.

“B-but he just came h-here, Y-yoruko, you can’t blame him…...” Iroha says, trying to grasp at her sketchbook to cover her face from the other girl’s potential explosion at her response.

“Give him a break, Yoruko. Hajime here was the last person to wake up, after all” Nikkei said, holding his brown hat with his hand

That’s when Makunouchi realized “Wait a sec, you just called me **‘Hajime’** weren’t you the one who didn’t know who I was?” If not for the black sunglasses he wore, his demanding expression would have startled at least a few.

“Oh yeah…….well, Mitsume here happened to kindly remind me of your name a few seconds ago. Please don’t mind that” Nikkei shot a glance at the psychologist, who didn’t return the favor, but still seemed uninterested in the conversation.

“About what you said earlier” Hajime scratched the back of his head “Does that mean that everyone else was knocked out too?” He didn’t want to admit it, but the boxer had at thought at first that no one else was there, at least until the magician came in.

“Exactly! In fact, I was the second person to wake up. The first one was, um…….” Nikkei looked nervously to the side, as Hajime did the same, he figured that the reporter was looking at Mikado, the one who had lead him here. Before he could notice what they were doing, Nikkei tried to keep on topic as fast as he could.

“A-anyway! What I was trying to say is…” Nikkei breathes in air, as if about to monologue a long verse “As I woke up, **that guy** lead me here and stayed silent. I wanted to keep an eye on him, but I followed my instincts and decided to look for more people. This place IS Hope’s Peak, after all”

Just then, a monotone voice spoke out from the crowd, belonging to the silver haired girl who was being quietly followed by Kabuya. The girl folded her arms and said “I haven’t seen anyone else bring this up, but…….does someone here know who put us here to begin with?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure that whoever that person is, they must not have very good intentions in mind……” Yuki exclaimed, with an almost worried tone in his voice

“Actually, let’s discuss that as a group, Ra-Ra” Setsuka said “some people will miss out on what’s going on if we don’t talk together” her closed eye made it look like she was winking at the others, but it came off in a friendly sort of way.

“Beautifully put, my dear Setsuka” A young boy with brightly colored hair said “I couldn’t have put it better myself. No. I could have **NEVER** put it as we-“

“I don’t think this is the best place to say those kinds of things, Kagarin…..” Shinji says, trying to keep the situation as controlled as possible.

“Keep quiet you two! We’re trying to have a discussion!” Kabuya said, trying to change the topic as fast as she could. Though one could notice that she was blushing a bit.

As we gathered around in a circle, Hajime happened to notice that the magician did not even move from his spot, just staying there like some sort of background decoration. Although the others took note as well, and the firefighter even offered to stand outside so he could sit together with them, a cold stare from Mitsume was all it took to put the man back where he originally stood.

The meeting started by having Hajime keep up with everything that had been happening, a quick refresher of names and talents, and a quick summary of what had happened so far. According to Setsuka, they were all together for about an hour until the boxer arrived to the room.

“So, it’s just the fifteen of us, right?” Yuki said, as a way to confirm.

“That is correct. We didn’t find anyone else in the areas we had the time to explore apart from the room Hajime wad locked in” Mitsume finally spoke out “And in the case that there were still someone else missing, they would be opting to stay out of this by conscious choice”

“That can’t be true! They would obviously try to at least have someone keep them company!” Hibiki, one of the Otonokoji twins, exclaimed in disbelief. The girl next to her gave her a quick hug as a way to comfort her worries

Even so, Kanade exclaimed “Well, for all we know they could have hidden themselves because they thought we were dangerous, sis” She does make a good point though, Hajime thought to himself, what if that person felt so threatened by our presence that they ran away?

“B-but they have no reason to not be with us! All we’ve been doing until now is talk about stuff!” Hibiki shouted at Kanade, who was sitting beside her, but then proceeded to hold on to her arm in regret “You’ll keep us safe though, right? I mean, there’s no one you can’t protect yourself against, is there?”

“If you want to know that badly, why don’t you ask the magician over there?” Mitsume’s voice worked almost perfectly as a conversation-breaker “Well, it’s not like he’ll answer our questions, anyway” To that prompt, the magician’s white mask changed to a happy expression, almost as if it felt entertained by the mere fact that Mitsume had been the one to say that “

Moving on, I actually wanted to say something to Makunouchi over there” the spiky-and-green haired boy, Teruya Otori, exclaimed with a happy smile on his face “Huh? What’s that about, Otori?” Hajime didn’t know what Teruya could possibly want to say to him, but he felt it wouldn’t hurt to just fulfill his curiosity.

“You see…...Makunouchi, when we tried to investigate, the room you were in was locked shut from the inside-out. I tried to open the door along with Kasai and Emma, but it didn’t even budge when we pushed it……” Teruya looked at Shinji, who had lowered his shoulders down in disappointment over not being able to be of help to the group.

“Maybe it was because you were the one that was trying to open it that Hajime didn’t want to get out!” Kabuya shouted at Teruya

“Makunouchi……..is that really true?” Teruya eyed him with quickly but then lowered his head, as if in response to Kabuya’s remark

“I would rather you not speak like that to anyone here, Yoruko. But we still need to confirm if that is true” Nikei says, standing up for an Otori with a broken sense of self-esteem.

To dispel the lie, Hajime said “But that’s wrong! Because when I woke up, the door in my room wasn’t locked at all!”

“So to put it simply: we tried several times to open Hajime’s door, but to no avail. However, it happened to have been unlocked by the time we woke up. The only possibility I can think of, is that someone opened the door with the key they had on hand”. The blonde haired Emma said, trying to make sense of everything.

Piqueing his curiosity, Hajime spoke out “Does anyone have any idea who that was? I mean, it doesn’t hurt to just know, does it?”

Before anyone else could raise their voice, the psychologist said “I’m pretty sure you know who that person is, it’s very obvious. And if you haven’t already, you can tell by the atmosphere in this group”

In protest, Otori says “Awwwww…...but Mitsume! Wasn’t the plan supposed to be that everyone becomes friends?”

“Not only friends! we’re supposed to become one with the beautiful maidens over there, so we can understand each other better!” Yuri raises his hands into the air, as if trying to get the group to agree with him “I’m very, very sure lady Setsuka would like us to do as much”

Nikkei cringed a little, moving himself a few spaces to the back in disgust “I wouldn’t go as far as to say that, but yeah, pretty much” He says

“Even, so isn’t there someo-“ Sora tries to say, but is suddenly cut off by a strange sound coming from an intercom in the monitor

“Wha-what the hell is that?!?” Hajime points at the screen with his shaking finger as Hibiki, Iroha and Teruya do the same. Taking off his glasses to see better, he could only stare with his mouth agape as a strange, monochrome-like figure with the shape of a bear appeared in it “This is a special announcement from your Headmaster! Please head to the Gym as soon as possible for our first meeting” the bear said, before the monitor quickly turned off. Suddenly, it turned on again, but this time showing the Hope’s Peak insignia in its center

“H-Headmaster? I-Is it t-talking a-about the one in the school?” Iroha says, trembling and clutching her notebook for dear life. There was no one to blame her for that, though.

“Sure seems like it, but I didn’t know that Hope’s Peak had a mascot to begin with. Do you guys know anything about it?”

“I’m sure I know someone who could tell us a thing or to about Hope’s Peak Academy, at least……” Yuki says, eyeing the reporter as a signal for him to speak his opinion on the matter, as he had seen him taking notes before during the meeting. Immediatelly standing on his feet, Nikkei started scribbling furiously on his notepad, and then turned it around to show what was written on it.

The scene zooms into the reporter’s doodle, to show the bears’s head with several arrows surrounding it. They were labelled “Despair”. However, there was another symbol with the Hope’s Peak Insignia, labelled “Hope” with arrows.

“What’s that, Yomiuri? It looks cool!” Otori pointed excitedly at the drawing, curious as to what it was

Just after finishing, Nikei exclaims in a hurried tone “well, from what I can gather, this creature is a bear, and the bear has the colors of the Hope’s Peak insignia: white, red, and black, which are meant to signify the battle between **Hope** and **Despair** in-“

“Your point being?” Emma says, trying to get them to arrive at the point without waiting for details

“-this world, which means that this creature is evil and cannot be trusted!” Nikei finishes his sentence in a hurry, with his eyes gleaming with pride at his discovery

“But how can you tell that the bear is evil? I mean, we haven’t even met him, have we?” Hajime says, remembering what they had been ordered to do by that same being “

It’s not like he can hurt us or anything, can it? It’s just a small and ugly animal after all” Kanade says with a smug and nonchalant smile on her face

“Miss Kanade! All animal’s lives are valuable! No matter their size or appearance!” Shinji tries to say, before quietly shrinking into a corner again. The guy was probably thinking about his response for a while because the discussion was being lead by a girl.

“Now that I think about it, the Gym was the only place that we weren’t able to check on because the door was locked away with chains” Shinji says with a curious expression “Maybe the bear doesn’t want us to go over there after all......”

“I wouldn’t say the same if I were you, Kasai” Mitsume finally raises her head from her portable screen and looks at the group “It would be intelligent to at least meet his request to fulfill our suspicions” Once that was said, she was the first one to stand up, immediatelly being followed by Nikkei, then a surprised Iroha, and then finally the rest of the group, one by one, all raised their legs in unison. Yuri took a while to stand up, for obvios reasons, but Otori decided to help him so he didn’t feel lonely.

“Let’s go guys! Onward to our new school semester! Otori says, striding forward ahead of the group, almost knocking back Kabuya as she walked by Sora. One has to wonder if he did that as payback for what happened. “You said it brother! Let’s go Yuki! Let’s go Hajime!” Shinji shouts with his energetic voice, lifting Yuki from his feet and onto his shoulder, and running ahead to keep up with Teruya, it wasn’t hard for the boxer to keep up with them due to his training,

“Heyyy! Don’t leave me behiiiind!” Kabuya shouts to the group, who had excitedly ran forward to the Gym as their destination

“I’m sure your legs still work, Kabuya” Mitsume says with a bored look on her face, not even paying another second of attention to her presence.

“Miss Yoruko! I don’t deserve to do so, but please allow me to be your valiant savior!” Yuri exclaims happily, hopefully she would let him help her, at least that’s what he thought in his mind.

“Kagarin, we don’t have time for this” As Mitsume says so, she starts pulling Yuri by the shoulder as she moves along, which he laments for a moment, but regains his composure very quickly, gushing over the psychologist once again.

“Wha-I’ll-You know what? I’m sure this is why you don’t have any friends and-“ Kabuya starts to shout in a panic, probably to get a reaction out of the psychologist, immersed in her study.

“There’s no need for that, Yoruko” Kabuya looks to her left, and sees Sora stretch her hand for her, who was crawling on the ground after being pushed.

“S-sora…….did you stay back to help me?” Kabuya said, surprised at the fact that Sora had even offered her support to her

“Of course I did. You’re my friend, after all” Sora says, with a smile on her face “let’s go Kabuya, everyone else is waiting for us to come back” 

”-okay Sora, please take me there” Kabuya says, relieved at her response And finally the pair left to re-join the group at the entrance of the Gym, with Kabuya hanging on to Sora’s shoulder as they went ahead to follow their trail. —————————————————————

When Hajime first arrived there, he didn’t expect to see what he actually saw. At the end of the Gym, in the podium, sat the monochromatic bear, motionless. But that wasn’t even the most surprising part, because everyone’s suspicions did indeed turn out to be wrong about one thing:

There was another student in the group, waiting

Because what stood before him was the figure of a shirt-less blonde man, crouching down with his arms crossed in the middle of the room “Excuse my indecency, but has anyone seen my cape, mask and hat? I’d thank the heavens if one of you happened to have it on hand” the figure said, almost ashamed of their position and impression they give off to the group.

But the man’s suspicion was incorrect, because all the way across the hallway, leaning on one side of the wall, grinning behind their mask, stood the thief they were looking for.

“Ha, this sure is getting interesting…...” the person took of their mask in order to brush their old-looking hair, to reveal the face of the last missing student, **Hashimoto Shobai, the Ultimate Weapons Dealer**. As he raised his lighter to smoke a cigarette.


	2. Prologue-Part 2

The words he had heard from the man were very unexpected, to say the least, as Hajime was so surprised that he almost fell down as he seemed to lose balance. 

“WHAAAAAAAAT!?!?!?” The group seemed to exchange confused looks within themselves 

Nikkei signaled for Shinji to follow him, and together they came closer to where the figure was standing, ashamed. “Hey, what was that about a mask and a robe? We really need to know” the journalist said, with an expectant tone in his voice.

“W-well, you see…….” the figure said “I woke up in this school, just like you guys, but I was very confused about what had happened”

“Of course you would be, because you didn’t see anyone until we got here, did you?” Yuki said, putting a finger to his head as if to remember something

“Actually, I did see someone” The figure said

Before they could continue, Kokoro interrupted the conversation by standing beside Nikkei and Shinji “Who exactly did you see?” She asked, trying to probe for an answer “What were they like?”

“To be honest, I didn’t actually get a good look at them” They said, holding their arms closer to their body “All I know is that I woke up, tried to search for other people inside this school, but was then attacked from behind before I could do anything about it. As soon as I came to, I was laying here on the ground, missing my shirt, robe and hat”

“Those darn things again…...Are you suffering from an identity crisis or something?” Kanade said “I bet you don’t even remember your name to begin with” she shook her head in disgust, and made a smug smile at the man.

“Actually, I do remember it! My name is Mikado Sannoji, the Ultimate Magician” The figure exclaimed, as a way to introduce themselves “I formerly dedicated myself to doing magic shows for kids, you see”

As soon as Mikado had said those words, Hajime’s head began to spin in circles as he couldn’t comprehend what he was hearing “W-wait! What do you mean you’re Mikado? I clearly remember you leading me to where the group was!” Hajime clenched his teeth in confusion, making a crunching sound of sorts.

Shocked himself, Mikado hurried over to Hajime and put his hands over his shoulders, with a frowned expression  
“You know who the wretched fiend who took my identity is!? Tell me! I need to know!” Hajime would have found the sight of a half-naked man holding him as very strange, were it not for the fact that he himself was wearing nothing but a jacket and glasses on, at least that was true for his upper half.

Hajime walked back a few, uncomfortable steps “Well, I did say hello to them when I came out of my room, and they even gave me a card with your name and talent on it” after a short pause, he simply shouts, nervous “what the hell else was I supposed to think that was?!?”

“Why are you asking me of all people? I’m the victim, you know!” Mikado says “And you couldn’t even tell the difference from the voice?” Out of frustration, Mikado began to try and shake Hajime off his feet, but his heavy weight only made him lean back slightly at most.

After seeing that, Setsuka walks in to intervene “Jim, just give the poor guy a break. You make him look like a weakling”

Makunouchi finally breaks free from Mikado’s grasp with ease “Ah, sorry about that, Setsuka” Not giving a second look at the shirt-less man he had discussed with, the boxer turned to Mitsume and Shinji, who were keeping guard “Hey, could you guys keep him busy for a bit? I need to see something for myself” as he looked back, he could see Mikado with a saddened expression for having to face an even stronger opponent in front of him.

Hajime made his way over to Nikkei and Kanade, who were in the middle of discussing something “Yo Kanade, mind if I ask Nikkei here a few things?” Kanade decides to make a disgusted face at the boxer, and strided on over to where Hibiki is, who was eyeing the walls. In response, the journalist simply sighs and shrugs his shoulders at what just happened.

“I don’t really mind, but please make it quick, I’m a bit busy right now, in case you haven’t noticed” As he said that, he stopped to scribble something in his notepad of his every few seconds. Nikkei points his pen at Hajime and says “Anyway, what did you want to tell me?”

“To be honest, I’ve been thinking about what the guys said earlier, and how there might actually be someone keeping us here” In order to get his point across, Hajime briefly takes off his shades and looks to his side “It’s just something that’s been on my mind since I came here, man” 

“I understand your concern, but please try not to bring that up anywhere that isn’t in private” Nikkei tucks his notepad inside his coat, having finished taking notes “I know better than anyone that people can get really riled up over nothing even if it doesn’t make sense”

“But that’s not what I’m talking about at all. We had to have ended up here for some reason, and you know that” Hajime folded his arms in front of him, thinking about what to say “whoever this mysterious persons, they didn’t want me to leave from my room for some reason, and I want to know exactly why”

“Y-You’re saying that figuring out who’s keeping us here isn’t important?” Hajime looks expectantly at Nikkei “That’s just crazy coming from someone who reports the damn news!”

Nikkei takes a step forward in order to refute Hajime’s claim, standing face to face with him “Well, to begin with, it’s not my fault that we don’t even know who that person is, let alone what they want to do with us” As if rethinking his actions, he simply states “I just want to keep you guys from wasting your energy by fighting over something that might as well not exist”

With determined eyes, Hajime says “who, Nikkei? Who are you talking about when you say that?”

Just at that moment, the lights in the Gym begin to go out one by one, until suddenly they are left in complete darkness. “Sis! This is not funny! Please turn the lights back on!” Hajime can hear Hibiki pleading her sister for help, but the latter replies with “That wasn’ t me! W-who was it? I-I just want to know who it was, that’s all”

A few seconds later, as if to highlight its presence, one of the ceiling lights from the gym turns on and points at the podium at the end of the gym. “Speak of the devil” was all the boxer got to hear from Nikkei from his grasp of the situation. From what could be seen, the monochromatic bear was standing in front of Iroha, Teruya and Kabuya, the latter which could be heard claiming that the two had “fiddled with the stupid thing”.

Finally, the bear’s darkened half lit up due to the light on its red eye turning on, and for a few seconds all we could do was stare in awe until it simply said, almost in a dissapointed tone “Hey guys! Did you forget that one of the guests was your lovable headmaster? It’s very rude to ignore someone when they’re standing right in front of you! Kids these days have no manners, sheesh” The bear stood up and pressed a button behind the podium, making all the lights in the Gym turn back on once again.

“Wha-what are you talking about?” Yuki scratched his head in confusion, having gotten closer to inspect the bear

“Obviously, you guys have no idea who I am, riiiight?” It tilts its head to the side slightly, staring curiously at the group “Well, you’re not smart enough to know what I’m talking about! You better study hard or you’ll get a failing grade in “common sense 101!”

“I don’t know if I care for your sense of humor, bear” Mitsume stares intently at her device, as if trying to scan him “Or the fact that you’re stalling without telling us anything”

“Uh? So your device can read my power level? I’ll have you know an ursine like me can overpower even the strongest of the weaklings!” The bear says, stretching out his arms into the air “.......Fine fine, if you really want to know, then I’ll just introduce myself already”

“My name is Monokuma! And from now on, I will be your lovely headmaster at this beautiful academy!” It says, until it suddenly starts jumping from side to side, excitedly

“So, you’ll be the one supervising our courses for the semester?” Emma says “I thought that very same person would make an appearance here as a greeting” She looks to the side, and mumbles something to herself

“Oh, There’s a reason for that” Monokuma states “but first, here’s a warning: Use the skip button, B button, or use the Konami code if you don’t want to hear my explanation! It won’t be my fault if one of you dorks zone out into a stupid daydream, you know?”

And then, Monokuma started going into an incomprehensible ramble, about how the school was built with a security system to prevent delinquents from getting out, or how the sprinklers on the rooftop of the Gym didn’t really work properly with fire.

As the bear had said, Hajime had been the one to start daydreaming because of the extremely long monologue, this time, he thought of how excited his grandparents would be once he told them the great news. They had always supported his career as a boxer, just like he was their own child.

From the middle of nowhere, the bear completely breaks the flow of his explanation by raising his arms and saying “-And that’s why you idiots will be staying in this school for the rest of your lives! Ta da!”

“W-wait! What do you mean “stay”? Doesn’t our class have a freaking schedule or something?” Hajime says, his hands curled into fists due to his confusion

“My type of class has no schedule! You’ll be working on it day and night until your legs give in and you start counting chickens!” Monokuma shouts, with an angered expression “Besides, you won’t need to read anything for the subject i’m going to enroll you in” he puts his “paw” behind his head, and then proceeds to jump from the podium and into the ground.

“Just get on with it! What are you even trying to get us to do?!” Kabuya says, stomping her feet into the ground and startling a nearby Iroha

Monokuma starts twirling “I can hear you just fine from down here, thank you very much!” He stops, and then proceeds to blush “You see, the subject I’m going to get you to partake in…….is murder” he says, putting his hands in his mouth and grinning

Those words were enough to prompt a response from Sora “Murder? You’re saying you’ll have us killing each other?”

Yuri runs over to where Sora was standing and states “You just say the word and I’ll do it, dear Sora! I’ll become the perfect victim for your perfect murder case, if that’s all it takes to win my place in your heart!” He then puts his hands in his chest, seemingly lovestruck.

“Correct! I’ll have you guys stay here forever!” Monokuma says “And what’s more! It’s possible that one of you guys could be desperate enough to try and kill at the first chance they get!”

But all Hajime had to hear was something so unbelievable for him to lose his temper. He started walking over in front of Monokuma, and saying “So, you just want us to kill someone else because you say so? Who the hell is going to believe you!?” As the boxer furiously points at the bear, Setsuka walks in and holds down his hand

“Jim, you really need to calm down right now” she says “at least we can listen to what it has to say, and then we can think of what to do” Trying to ease the situation, she gives a weak smile to him and puts her hand in his shoulder

But at that point, the boxer wasn’t going to give up. This time it was himself who put her hand down, and then proceeded to stand right in front of the bear, face to face, clenching his teeth in fury “If you don’t shut the hell up, then I’ll have to do it myself!” Hajime curls up his hands into fists and puts himself in a position to strike, but just as soon as he’s about to make contact……

“That won’t be necessary at all” 

A distant voice can be heard from across the Gym, at the entrance. It belonged to who they thought at first was Mikado Sannoji himself “If the first thing you do is try to punch something without any reason, then you’ve just proven the bear’s point, idiot” he says, shrugging with his hands in the air “In fact, I’d say that given your attitude, you could be the very first desperate killer the damn bear was talking about”. The man then walks over to the group, standing beside Teruya, who had stayed to watch over Mikado. Meanwhile, the bear had been “scared” into going below the podium by Hajime’s outburst.

Seeing his imposter, the magician finally stands up in a panic and says “hey! You’re the one who pretended to be me! Give me back my clothes!” he tries to do the same thing to him as with Hajime, but the imposter simply pushes him off “wha-what are you doing?!?” Mikado stammers.

“But these are so fancy, you know? It would be a waste to just give them back to someone like you……” the figure folds his arms, but a slight movement in his expression suggests he is grinning behind his white mask. “Besides, it’s not like you can’t just ask someone else to give you a pair. The man with the coat over there is a good candidate, as you can see”

Being called out, the reporter simply says “Thank you very much, but I’ll refuse” shrinking back into a corner once more.

“That’s a very important part of my identity as a magician! You’re dishonoring my name by acting as a fake!” Mikado says, now being infuriated by what the imposter was doing “The heavens would never allow someone like you to possess the abilities that I do!”

“I guess that part is true. After all, I haven’t been able to do any magic since I got these” The mask then turns into a saddened expression “Fine, I’ll give them back to you, but only if you do me a favor”

“Wha-what thing would you even want me to do? Can’t you see how pathetic I look right now?” Mikado says, lowering his head in shame

“Mikado, I want you to be my bodyguard for the Killing Game” the imposter says, the mask now grinning ear to ear “We’ll be each other’s partner, and ensure that both of us make it out of here alive” 

“B-but you can’t just say something like that and expect me to accept it!” Mikado shouts nervously “How can I be sure that you’ll even keep your promise and do as you say?” He points at the figure

In response, the man simply snaps his fingers with the white gloves on, causing a small spark of flame to appear in the center of his hand “Because I have the most important part of what makes you a magician, Mikado: your ‘magic’”. After a few seconds, he snuffs it out “although, I can just give this magic back to you if you also keep your end of the bargain in return. This gloves are powerful, as I’m sure the rest of you guys can see”

“But that’s not fair! Why does Mikado of all people get to keep the gloves? Why not Kasai? I’m sure he knows a thing or two about flames” Otori says, making a pouting expression

The firefighter is taken aback by his statement, but he still tries to amend it “You don’t have to put it that way, Otori. Besides, i’m not very sure I can keep handling flames for the time being” he puts his arms around his body, as if remembering a past experience

This time, it was the figure who had pointed at Mikado “It’s your decision, is it a yes or a no?” folding his arms in front of his body, the mask now wore a neutral expression. “I’ll let you know I don’t have time to wait for stupid people to answer” he says, shrugging

Having decided, the former magician confidently says “I’ll…...I’ll help you, just give me my possessions back, if you please” Mikado puts forward his hand, as if non-verbally giving a request

All the man did was take off the white mask, revealing his face, which almost made him look older than the age he actually was. He wore a bored expression on his face, which gave off the impression that he was bored of talking with the group. The man then gave his mask and cape back to Mikado, who put it back on immediatelly, almost in tears

“Oh heavens, I’ve missed this sensation of protection for a long while!” Mikado says, pressing his hand against his mask so no one else would dare take it from him again. “Now then, I would also like it if you gave me my shirt back, slimy scoundrel!” he wraps his arms around his body, like he was missing something.

The man simply shrugged him off and said “You know I can’t do that, there’s a ton of people here. And unlike you, i’m not an exhibitionist” he says “Besides, I don’t have it on hand at the moment” giving a smug smile at the magician. 

“Why you! I’ll have you know that standing here in the shameful presence of the group isn’t exactly the greatest feeling to ever graze humanity!” Covering his upper half with his cape, the magician tries to hold on to the man, who does nothing but look at him with disgust

To break the awkward silence, Hajime simply walks up to Mikado and says “Here……..I don’t really mind not having my jacket on, but at least that way you won’t be as embarrassed, man” Without hesitation, he took off his jacket and put it on an embarrassed Mikado.

“Hey Hajime! Don’t you have any shame?” Kabuya shouts at the boxer, and then looked away in embarrassment

“That’s fine, let’s just get this over with” The mysterious man finally interjects “I just have a few questions to ask the bear, who has apparently ran away in ‘fear’ behind the podium. Also…….Mikado, as I said earlier” and points at the floor in front of him. As he said so, the magician walked over to his side, with his white mask making a disgusted expression.

Makunouchi felt like raising an objection, but he didn’t feel like intervening would be the best course of action to take. Instead, he simply listened to what he had to say. Meanwhile, the reporter had walked on over to where he was standing, and gave him his own jacket to wear instead “Don’t mention it” is all he manages to say about it.

As if on cue, Monokuma jumped up and landed right in front of the mysterious man, who simply stared intently at the bear “Well, have you finally decided to stop being a shy wallflower and start being an actual, decent person?” He says with a mocking tone, leaning up with his body to stare directly at the man “It’s getting late kids, so make it quick!”

“First of all, you haven’t explained hell about how any of this works” the man says “And second……” As if to emphasize, the man leans forward and looks eye to eye with Monokuma “.......what are we supposed to be afraid of if all that’s keeping us here is a freaking bear?”

The bear starts to blush, but then his red eye starts to glow, as he says “oh, I see…...so you guys really do think I’m that cute, aren’t ya?”

Hajime thought that was a good time to finally start protesting again “Hey! what the hell happened to ‘no threatening people’ you hypocrite!” 

“E-Everyone, calm down, please” Shinji says, but to no avail

Ignoring both of them, the man simply holds his hand stretched in front of Monokuma, who appeared “nervous” “My name is Hashimoto Shobai, and from now on I don’t give a crap about what you have to say” Flames start to spark from Hashimoto’s gloves which formerly belonged to Mikado, and began to engulf Monokuma’s robotic body. The bear began to “scream” in terror, and soon enough his body became extremely rusty beyond repair.

Then, there was silence. The rest of the group stared in awe at the bear, who lay motionless on the ground. 

“Is this…….is this really over?” Emma says, trying to check Monokuma for any signs of life, or at least the mechanical equivalent of one.

“The Mastermind wouldn’t be that stupid, I hope” Mitsume says, raising her glance from her device and stared at the group “If anything, all that man has done is prove that we really aren’t safe here”

Yuki starts getting nervous, and says “W-wait! So you’re saying that there might be more Monokumas out there?”

At that moment, a voice echoed from all the way across the Gym and into the podium “Out there? More like right here! Spending leisure time with you guys!” The source of the voice jumps into the podium, to reveal a completely unscratched Monokuma, which left Emma very shocked, as she was just holding his remains a few seconds ago

“AAAAAAAAH!!!” Teruya and Iroha scream in a panic as they ran away from the podium. The former ran towards the entrance, where Hibiki and Kanade were talking, while the latter hid behind Shinji, who became nervous at her clinging to his legs. 

“B-but I thought that Shobai destroyed you! How are you even here?” Yuki said “There aren’t more of you in this school, are there?”

Hashimoto stretches his hand in front of himself, uninterested “Why wouldn’t there be? it’s a robot we’re talking about, so you can’t rule it out”

“Hey! You teenagers are all troublemakers!” Monokuma replies I’ll have to give you guys a little taste of what happens here when you dare question your Headmaster!”

“What are you going to do? Scratch me?” Hashimoto says

“I’ll do much more than that! I’ll let you be the test subject for my brand new weapon! The Spears Of Gungnir!” Monokuma says, and as he says that, Hajime can see how several holes start appearing underneath where Hashimoto is standing

“W-wait, y-you can’t fucking do that!” Hajime screams out, trying to run and help Hashimoto, accidentally pushing back Emma, who was standing next to him. 

But just before he can do that, the Weapons Dealer is pushed aside by another person. And that is the luckiest student in the group: Yuki Maeda, who was the closest to him at that moment, and then fell to the ground.

“Y-Yuki! Why did you do that!” Sora runs over to Yuki, who had fallen over. And that’s when she saw his injury: one of the spears in the back had managed to pierce into his leg. “Someone, please bring bandages as soon as possible, we need them!”

But then, Monokuma himself interrupted “Actually, there’s a nurse’s office in this building” he then looked down, with a gloomy expression “I could overlook what that troublemaker did just this once, but never again……..” 

That said and done, Monokuma went out of the room in a hurry, but then brought back one of the medical beds from the nurses office. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll take this boy over to a quick inspection, and I’d hope that you stay here in this room, quietly, unless you need me to make more trips to the nurses office, puhuhuhuhu” the bear laughed in an almost mocking way, taking the medical bed with Yuki in it. Before it went out of sight, Hajime could see him slowly open his eyes.

“I-Is Yuki going to be okay? He seemed to be really hurt…” Hibiki says

“Of course he will, sis, he’d have to be weaker than a preschooler to not survive that” Kanade replies, once again hugging Hibiki as a way to comfort her.

Hajime tried to find Shini, who Yuki considered one of his friends here, but the firefighter had sat down on the ground, with a saddened expression, and out of respect, Makunouchi sat down too “I knew that Shobai was acting foolishly, but all I did was stand there as one of my friends got hurt” he folded his arms “I guess it can’t be helped because it happened so fast, but I still feel guilty about it”

Hajime didn’t expect Shinji to be so shaken up about it, but he at least thought that he could help him out “Even if you would have gotten in there on time, the spears would have hit someone anyway” Hajime took of his glasses, put them inside his coat, and stared intently at Shinji “And I’d rather hope that no one here gets hurt, Shinji, especially not you”.

Shinji kept looking at the ground “I know, I just…….thought I could do something about it” After saying that, he stood up, and lifted Hajime up from the ground as well. “I’m sure Yuki will be fine, I just hope he wasn’t too scared of the spear”.

Running as fast as he could, Monokuma finally stops in front of the entrance to the Gym with a few huffs and puffs, and announces “That brat isn’t going to die today, sheesh. But it’ll take him until tomorrow to recover completely from his past mistakes” he then walks on over to the podium again, playfully “Now that I’m here, it’s time to go over the school regulations of your Killing Game Semester! Be nice and don’t interrupt, please!” He said, grabbing everyone’s attention. “You can’t just murder the heck out of someone and expect to get away scot-free, no sir”

The scene changes into an image showing six people standing on separate podiums, three on the left and three on the right, with Monokuma standing in the center in what seemed to be a throne. “In addition to killing someone, you also have to survive the class trial! To do that, the remaining “spotless” need to figure out which of them is not much of a clean person, but a cold blooded ‘Blackened’! If they vote correctly for the, then only the culprit will receive a very harsh punishment! However…...if the majority votes for the spotless, then everyone but the Blackened will be punished severely!”

“In case that either side loses…..” Nikkei says “.....What’s the punishment?” He says, holding his hat with his hand

Monokuma blushes and says “To put it bluntly, it’s an execution where the culprit loses their lives” 

“B-But how c-can you say that like it was nothing?!” Iroha said in a panic

“Well…...kids these days are so violent, you know?” Monokuma taps his head as if mocking Iroha’s intellect “And in a Killing Game, what else is a punishment supposed to be? Culinary cooking? Confessing to your secret lover? Ha! The nerve…..”

“You know…...I’ve been wondering something” Hashimoto says “What’s stopping anyone from refusing to kill and trying to escape?” 

“That’s what the School Regulations in your Student Handbooks are for, you brainless dork!” Monokuma says, but then stops for a moment, suddenly saying “Oh wait….I never gave you those thingies to begin with, did I? Oh, maybe I’M the dork here!”

The bear goes back inside the back of the podium, and starts throwing small tablets at the students. “This is what I was talking about, go ahead and turn them on, just like me at a Beauty Pageant!”

As soon as Hajime did that, he saw his own name displayed on it, along with his own picture, the current time outside, and the title “Killing School Semester” at the top. “And that’s not all you’re going to see, nope!” The scene then turns to display each one of the rules of the Killing Game.

Rule #1: Students may reside only within the school. Leaving campus is an unacceptable use of time.

 

Rule #2: "Nighttime" is from 10pm to 7am. However, some areas are off-limits at night.

Rule #3: Sleeping anywhere other than the dormitory is strictly forbidden.

Rule #4: With minimal restrictions, you are free to explore Hope's Peak Academy at your own discretion.

 

Rule #5: Violence against headmaster Monokuma is strictly prohibited, as is destruction of surveillance cameras.

 

Rule #6: Anyone who kills a fellow student and becomes a "blackened" will graduate, unless they are discovered during the class trial.

 

Rule #7: Additional school regulations may be added if necessary.

Rule #8: Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.

 

Rule #9: If the guilty party is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.

 

Rule #10: If the guilty party is not exposed, they alone will graduate, and all remaining students will be executed.

 

Rule #11: Lending your e-Handbook to another student is strictly prohibited.

 

Rule #12: The guilty party may only kill a maximum of two people during any single "Killing Game."

 

Rule #13: Attempting to break into locked rooms is strictly prohibited.

“And that’s it for all you need to know about the Killing Game, suckers!” Monokuma says “And now, for something you’ll surely get used to…..”

The bear disappears from sight, and the monitor in the Gym proceeds to turn on “"Okay then...sweet dreams, everyone! Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite…..” 

“The regulations do say something about our sleeping chambers, I suppose” Mikado says “It would be wise if we followed suit and slept tight for the time being”

“That’s a great idea! Quick, Miss Hibiki and Miss Kanade! I’ll keep you ladies safe from the wretched terrors of a Killing Game inhabited by males!” Yuri exclaims, clinging to Kanade, who slaps him in retaliation. However, the astronaut shows no response whatsoever.

Teruya starts walking towards the entrance, with his hands behind his head “Actually, I’m pretty sure our dorm rooms are over here” as he says that, he points to a division in the hallway which leads to a red corridor. “I’ll go on for now, my head feels funny” He says, but then Setsuka quickly follows his trail.

Hajime starts walking to the corridor as well, but then Shinji catches up to him “I hope Yuki can rest well today. This was probably the worst way for him to start our stay here” he says

“As I said, Shinji, he’ll be fine. Let’s just wait until tomorrow, man” Hajime says, putting his hand in behind his shoulder “All we can do for now is wait”

“That’s okay…….thanks for talking to me Hajime, I appreciated it “ Shinji says “And well, I don’t really want to end things on a sore note so……” Shinji proceeds to gulp in air “Let’s give it everything we’ve got, tomorrow will be the best day ever!!!” He shouts at Hajime. Before he could react, the firefighter starts running across the red corridor.

“H-hey, you don’t have to be so pumped up if you don’t want to!” Hajime says, running to catch up to Shinji

“Hey! This is your room, right?” Shinji says, pointing at a red door with Hajime’s name in a steel plate. “Better sleep up for tomorrow! We’re going to be up first thing in the morning!” He says, and then finally runs away to his own room.

Hajime turned to the door and saw a key stuck inside, also with his name on it. Just as he was opening the door, he hears Nikkei and Mikado arguing close-by.

“Hey, Yomiuri!” Hajime says “I’ll give you back your coat!” And before the reporter can refuse, he takes Nikkei’s coat off and puts it on him. “Whatever, it’s fine” is all he manages to say, before going off to his room.

One thing that the boxer managed to notice is that Mikado was now wearing his normal white shirt under his robe, which put him in a more comfortable mood.

“That old buffon put my shirt under my room!” He says “He must have done it as a way to mock me, didn’t he?” Again with a furious expression

“Well, I’m sure you guys can tell each other off tomorrow” Hajime says “And find out just what that weird guy wants and all” To not make things any more awkward, he says “Anyway, we all need to rest for tomorrow, so sleep tight” he says

Finally, the magician lets out a stammer and runs into his room, opening it in a hurry and disappearing inside it.

He soon figured that he was probably the only one awake at that point, so Hajime decided to enter his room and check it out.

As expected, he sat down on the bed at the back of his room, and a certain thought entered his mind. Apart from all the added commodities and color, the room looked almost exactly the same as the one he had woken up in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this, the Prologue finally wrapa up to a close. The next pair of parts will mainly be about the students exploring the school, but also to give Yuki the proper introduction he missed this time around. The poor boy
> 
> Also, this part and the last one came out pretty quickly, but I’m afraid I’ll take a little bit longer on planning out a few things for Chapter 1 due to external circumstances. 
> 
> Edit: Something I forgot to mention is that there will be several references to both SDRA2 and DRA spoilers from the original canon, so if you haven’t kept up to date with it I highly reccomend you do so to avoid spoilers

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys! This is my first attempt at a SDRA2 fanfic! I hope you can appreciate it. I don’t really have a set upload schedule for it, but I do plan to finish it eventually. Also, the Prologue is the only exception to the other chapters, as they will be much more gargantuan in lenght when compared with it.


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